Things to share from my business journey

4 Steps To Developing A Growth Mindset

The following four steps will help you to get started developing your persistence and mastery so that you can be more successful in all of your endeavours.

1. Listen to your inner voice. You might not realise it, but there is an internal conversation going on in your mind at all times. While most of us are too busy going about our day to notice and listen to this self-talk, taking time to stop and listen to this internal monologue is the first step in changing your mindset.

When you are going through a difficult time, or are facing a challenge that you can’t seem to overcome, if you stop and listen to your self-talk it is likely that it’s pretty negative if you have a fixed mindset. You will hear yourself thinking things such as, “I am not smart enough, talented enough, or pretty enough”, or some other self-criticism. You may also hear yourself say that it’s not your fault, or you may even become frustrated or a bit angry with those who offer help, advice or suggestions for improvement. All of these attitudes come from a fixed mindset, and you must learn to listen for it, and recognise it for what it is, if you wish to change your attitude, reaction and results.

2. Make a Conscious Choice. Up until now, it’s likely that you’ve either been ignoring this negative self-talk, or going along with it in agreement when you were aware of it. Just because you are thinking these thoughts, however, doesn’t mean that you have to agree. You can fight back, by making a conscious choice to look at the situation objectively and seek ways to turn it around. This might involve seeking the aid of others, working hard to improve specific abilities and skills or searching for another solution. Realising you can choose to disagree with these negative feelings and false beliefs is the second step to changing your mindset.

3. Replace the Negative with the Positive. As you learn to listen to your self-talk, and identify the limiting myths and false beliefs that come from a fixed mindset and begin to look for proactive solutions, you will need to also learn how to combat the negative, critical inner voice of your fixed mindset. Fight back with learning how to replace the thoughts from a fixed mindset with the positive tones and encouraging words of a growth mindset.

When the voice of your fixed mindset points out that you don’t have the right skill or talent to accomplish your objective, acknowledge it. “Yes, I might not have what I need right now.” Then, flip this negative into a positive by replacing it! “But, I don’t have to leave things as they are, I can work hard and persist until I do have what I need to get the job done! I can learn, I can improve and I can succeed!” Learning to embrace challenges and face fears and combat negative, self-limiting thoughts with affirmations and statements that identify the actions that you can take to achieve a solution will help to give you the confidence, inner strength motivation and determination to not give up!

4. Take Action! Now that you’ve begun to learn how to see challenges and other issues with a growth mindset, and to identify areas for change and improvement, make plans and take action to achieve your objectives. Setting goals, and making a list of the steps that you need to take to achieve these goals is helpful during this stage. Over time, as you begin to experience some success, your confidence will grow. Eventually, your inner self talk will become more positive, your determination and persistence will grow and eventually you will experience fewer incidents of negative self-talk.

The level of success that you experience in your life is really up to you. You can use the power of your mind to improve your life by taking action to change your mindset into one that is more growth oriented and positive.